50-592: Metroid Dread is a 2021 action-adventure game developed by MercurySteam and Nintendo EPD and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch . It was released on October 8, 2021. Set after Metroid Fusion (2002), players control the bounty hunter Samus Aran as she investigates the source of a mysterious transmission on the planet ZDR. It retains the side-scrolling gameplay of previous 2D Metroid games and incorporates stealth elements. The Metroid producer, Yoshio Sakamoto , conceived Dread for
100-627: A fantasy " setting. Tutankham , debuted by Konami in January 1982, was an action-adventure released for arcades . It combined maze, shoot 'em up, puzzle-solving and adventure elements, with a 1983 review by Computer and Video Games magazine calling it "the first game that effectively combined the elements of an adventure game with frenetic shoot 'em up gameplay." It inspired the similar Time Bandit (1983). Action Quest , released in May 1982, blended puzzle elements of adventure games into
150-446: A joystick -controlled, arcade-style action game, which surprised reviewers at the time. While noting some similarities to Adventure , IGN argues that The Legend of Zelda (1986) by Nintendo "helped to establish a new subgenre of action-adventure", becoming a success due to how it combined elements from different genres to create a compelling hybrid, including exploration, adventure-style inventory puzzles , an action component,
200-571: A monetary system , and simplified RPG-style level building without the experience points . The Legend of Zelda series was the most prolific action-adventure game franchise through to the 2000s. Roe R. Adams also cited the arcade-style side-scrolling fantasy games Castlevania (1986), Trojan (1986) and Wizards & Warriors (1987) as early examples of action-adventure games. Games like Brain Breaker (1985), Xanadu (1985), Metroid (1986) and Vampire Killer (1986) combined
250-767: A subgenre of open world action-adventure video games in the third-person perspective . They are characterized by their likeness to the Grand Theft Auto series in either gameplay or overall design. In these types of open world games, players may find and use a variety of vehicles and weapons while roaming freely in an open world setting. Metroidvania is a portmanteau of Metroid and Castlevania ; such games are sometimes referred to as "search action", and are generally based on two-dimensional platformers. They emphasize both exploration and puzzle-solving with traditional platform gameplay. Survival horror games emphasize "inventory management" and making sure
300-400: A barrier to allow Samus to progress before he is assassinated by one of Raven Beak's robotic soldiers. Adam encourages Samus to defeat Raven Beak and destroy ZDR. In Elun, Samus encounters the X parasites and inadvertently releases them into the rest of the planet. One of the X possesses Quiet Robe's corpse and reactivates the remaining EMMI. Samus arrives on the surface, where she is attacked by
350-545: A choice of what to say. The NPC gives a scripted response to the player, and the game offers the player several new ways to respond. Due to the action-adventure subgenre's broad and inclusive nature, it causes some players to have difficulty finishing a particular game. Companies have devised ways to give the player help, such as offering clues or allowing the player to skip puzzles to compensate for this lack of ability. Brett Weiss cites Atari 's Superman (1979) as an action-adventure game, with Retro Gamer crediting it as
400-474: A combination of complex story elements, which are often displayed for players using audio and video. The story is heavily reliant upon the player character's movement, which triggers story events and thus affects the flow of the game. Popular examples of action-adventure games include The Legend of Zelda , God of War , and Tomb Raider series. There is a good deal of controversy over what actually constitutes an action-adventure game. One definition of
450-448: A complex text parser and no free-moving character. While they share general gameplay dynamics, action-adventures vary widely in the design of their viewpoints, including bird's eye , side-scrolling, first-person, third-person , over-the-shoulder, or even a 3/4 isometric view . Many action-adventure games simulate a conversation through a conversation tree . When the player encounters a non-player character , they are allowed to select
500-517: A game with a mix of elements from an action game and an adventure game , especially crucial elements like puzzles inspired by older adventure games. Action-adventures require many of the same physical skills as action games, but may also offer a storyline, numerous characters, an inventory system, dialogue, and other features of adventure games. They are typically faster-paced than pure adventure games, because they include both physical and conceptual challenges. Action-adventure games normally include
550-711: A side-scrolling platformer format with adventure exploration, creating the Metroidvania platform-adventure subgenre. Similarly, games like 005 (1981), Castle Wolfenstein and Metal Gear (1987) combined action-adventure exploration with stealth mechanics, laying the foundations for the stealth game subgenre, which would later be popularized in 1998 with the releases of Metal Gear Solid , Tenchu: Stealth Assassins , and Thief: The Dark Project . The cinematic platformer Prince of Persia (1989) featured action-adventure elements, inspiring games such as Another World (1991) and Flashback (1992). Alone in
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#1732788091253600-400: A single avatar as the protagonist . This type of game is often quite similar to role-playing video games . They are distinct from graphic adventures , which sometimes have free-moving central characters, but also a wider variety of commands and fewer or no action game elements and are distinct too from text adventures , characterized by many different commands introduced by the user via
650-735: Is an action game that includes situational problem-solving. Adventure gamers may also be purists, rejecting any game that makes use of physical challenges or time pressure. Regardless, the action-adventure label is prominent in articles over the internet and media. The term "action-adventure" is usually substituted for a particular subgenre due to its wide scope. Although action-adventure games are diverse and difficult to classify, there are some distinct subgenres. Many games with gameplay similar to those in The Legend of Zelda series are called Zelda clones or Zelda -like games. Popular subgenres include: A Grand Theft Auto clone belongs to
700-563: Is captured by another EMMI, but is saved by a Chozo named Quiet Robe, who deactivates them. Quiet Robe explains that, long ago, two Chozo tribes, the scientific Thoha and warrior Mawkin, banded together to trap the Metroids on the planet SR388. The Thoha intended to destroy SR388, but Raven Beak, the Mawkin leader, wanted to use the Metroids as a bioweapon to conquer the galaxy. He slaughtered
750-476: Is unable to use it, due to her energy-draining Metroid powers. The X possessing Quiet Robe appears and allows itself to be absorbed into Samus to neutralize her Metroid abilities, allowing her to escape the planet before it explodes. The Metroid producer, Yoshio Sakamoto , conceived Metroid Dread as a Nintendo DS sequel to Metroid Fusion (2002). It came from the concept of having Samus followed by "dread" on an unfamiliar planet. Sakamoto wanted to expand on
800-559: The Uncharted franchise, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Ark: Survival Evolved . Yoshio Sakamoto Yoshio Sakamoto ( Japanese : 坂本 賀勇 , Hepburn : Sakamoto Yoshio ) (born July 23, 1959) is a Japanese video game designer , director , and producer . He has worked at Nintendo since 1982. He has directed several games in the Metroid series. He is one of
850-472: The WarioWare series. Sakamoto has stated that he wants to live up to public expectations of Nintendo to deliver products similarly unique to those of his youth, describing WarioWare, Inc. as an example. Regarding his professional relationship with Nintendo producer Shigeru Miyamoto , he believes his mission is not to compete with but to "always come up with something very different from what Mr. Miyamoto
900-593: The Game & Watch handheld Donkey Kong , and the arcade game Donkey Kong Jr. He turned to the Nintendo Entertainment System afterward, for which he designed the games Wrecking Crew , Balloon Fight and Gumshoe . Sakamoto also was the lead scenario writer and creator of Famicom Detective Club with its first two entries, some of the most influential visual novels in Japan in
950-619: The Nintendo 3DS game Metroid: Samus Returns (2017) were connected to Dread . In May 2010, IGN 's Craig Harris said that the story for Metroid Dread was complete and that Nintendo was able to "bring it back at any time". Critics expressed interest in Metroid Dread or a similar 2D side-scrolling Metroid project. In 2011, IGN cited Dread as a "game in danger". K. Thor Jensen included it in his list of "video games you will never, ever play". He felt that Metroid: Other M
1000-493: The Nintendo DS in the mid-2000s, but development ended due to technical limitations. Industry commentators expressed interest in a new 2D Metroid game, and listed Dread in their "most wanted" lists. After their work on Metroid: Samus Returns in 2017, Sakamoto appointed MercurySteam to develop Dread , the first original side-scrolling Metroid game since Metroid Fusion . It was announced at E3 2021 . Metroid Dread
1050-589: The action game and adventure game genres. Typically, classical adventure games have situational problems for the player to explore and solve to complete a storyline, involving little to no action . If there is action, it is generally confined to isolated instances. Classical action games, on the other hand, have gameplay based on real-time interactions that challenges the player's reflexes and eye-hand coordination . Action-adventure games combine these genres by engaging both eye-hand coordination and problem-solving skills. An action adventure game can be defined as
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#17327880912531100-818: The "first to utilize multiple screens as playing area". Mark J.P. Wolf credits Adventure (1980) for the Atari VCS as the earliest-known action-adventure game. The game involves exploring a 2D environment, finding and using items which each have prescribed abilities, and fighting dragons in real-time like in an action game . Muse Software 's Castle Wolfenstein (1981) was another early action-adventure game, merging exploration, combat, stealth, and maze game elements, drawing inspiration from arcade shoot 'em ups and maze games (such as maze-shooter Berzerk ) and war films (such as The Guns of Navarone ). According to Wizardry developer Roe R. Adams, early action-adventure games "were basically arcade games done in
1150-526: The 80s. Sakamoto created characters for Metroid (under the alias 'Shikamoto'), and was a game designer on Kid Icarus . He also directed Super Metroid , Metroid Fusion , Metroid: Zero Mission , Metroid: Other M , and was the producer for Metroid: Samus Returns and Metroid Dread . Sakamoto's design work is also found in Nintendo games including Balloon Kid (1990), Game & Watch Gallery (1997), Wario Land 4 (2001), and
1200-490: The Dark (1992) used 3D graphics , which would later be popularized by Resident Evil (1996) and Tomb Raider (1996). Resident Evil in particular created the survival horror subgenre, inspiring titles such as Silent Hill (1999) and Fatal Frame (2001). Action-adventure games have gone on to become more popular than the pure adventure games and pure platform games that inspired them. Recent examples include
1250-591: The Thoha tribe and spared Quiet Robe so the Metroids could be controlled with his Thoha DNA. He planned to use ZDR to house Metroids, but had to contain an infestation of the X while Samus eradicated the Metroids from SR388. Raven Beak reprogrammed the EMMI robots and lured Samus to ZDR to extract the Metroid DNA implanted in her during the events of Fusion , which would allow him to revive the Metroids. Quiet Robe opens
1300-655: The UK. In the United States, Dread debuted at #3 and sold 854,000 copies in its first month, making it the fastest-selling Metroid , according to Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser . In Japan, it debuted at number one, selling 86,798 retail copies in its first week of release. Including digital copies, Dread outsold the life-to-date sales of nearly every Metroid game in Japan in its first week. As of December 2022, Dread had sold 3.07 million copies worldwide, making it
1350-492: The X, a dangerous species of parasite that can mimic any creature it infects, survives on the remote planet ZDR. They dispatch seven EMMI (Extraplanetary Multiform Mobile Identifiers) robots to ZDR to investigate, but lose contact. The Federation sends Samus Aran to ZDR to investigate. Underground, Samus encounters a Chozo warrior, who destroys the exit, defeats her in combat and strips her suit of most of its abilities. Her ship's computer, Adam, instructs her to find another path to
1400-554: The best boss fights ever". Metroid Dread pre-orders topped the Amazon Video Game Best Sellers list in the US, UK, and Japan. It was also the most pre-ordered game following E3 2021 at GameStop . Dread had the highest-grossing physical launch of the franchise in the UK, debuting at number three on the weekly video games sales charts. Including digital copies, it became the fastest-selling Metroid game in
1450-590: The best-selling Metroid game. At the Game Awards 2021 , Metroid Dread won the award for Best Action/Adventure Game. At the Golden Joystick Awards, it won in the category Nintendo Game of the Year. It was also named Game of the Year by Time and Digital Trends . Action-adventure game An action-adventure game is a video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both
1500-428: The boss fights, writing that they "range from the traditional big, drooling monsters with patterns and weak points to learn, to almost Smash Bros. -esque encounters with enemies that mimic your move set". Chris Carter of Destructoid said Dread "masterfully" executed the Metroidvania formula, and that it "doesn't take a lot of big swings, but it rarely bats a foul ball". Nintendo Life ' s PJ O'Reilly liked
1550-508: The future", triggering expectation that it would appear at the E3 convention in 2005 or 2006. In late 2005, rumors spread that Metroid Dread had been canceled or was in development hell . A release date of November 2006 was listed in the February issue of Official Nintendo Magazine . The March issue listed a release date for 2006, with a suggestion to look to E3 2006 for further details, but
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1600-481: The game did not appear. A message reading "Experiment status report update: Metroid project 'Dread' is nearing the final stages of completion" appears in the 2007 game Metroid Prime 3: Corruption . The Corruption director, Mark Pacini , denied any connection and said that it was coincidental. The Wired writer Chris Kohler expressed skepticism over the denial. In the Japanese version, released later that year,
1650-406: The gameplay still follows a number of adventure game genre tropes (gathering items , exploration of and interaction with one's environment, often including an overworld connecting areas of importance, and puzzle-solving). While the controls are arcade-style (character movement, few action commands) there is an ultimate goal beyond a high score. In most action-adventure games, the player controls
1700-412: The last of the EMMI. She destroys it by sapping its energy with her hand, a power gained from her Metroid DNA. As a side effect, Samus is slowly becoming a Metroid. On the floating fortress of Itorash, Samus confronts Raven Beak, who has been masquerading as Adam. Raven Beak reveals that he spared her before so that she would awaken her Metroid powers, at which point he would clone her to create an army of
1750-498: The message instead refers to a "dread class turret". In 2010, Sakamoto said that Nintendo would "start from scratch" if they returned to the Dread project. He also said that they were "waiting and watching and reading the comments to see what people are interested in before we make any comment on the project". In other interviews, he denied that the Wii game Metroid: Other M (2010) and
1800-514: The most powerful Metroid of all. Samus battles Raven Beak and is nearly killed, but the Metroid abilities within her grant her incredible power. Samus attacks Raven Beak, draining energy from Itorash and causing it to crash into ZDR. Raven Beak is infected by an X which had possessed the previously killed Kraid's corpse earlier, and Samus uses her newfound powers to destroy all three of them. Samus retreats to her ship as ZDR begins to self-destruct, but
1850-400: The most prominent members of Nintendo's former Research and Development 1 division, along with Gunpei Yokoi and Toru Osawa. Sakamoto is a key member in the development of the Metroid series . Sakamoto grew up with Nintendo toys, which he felt were inventive. The company hired him in 1982, when he graduated from art college. His first projects at Nintendo were the design of pixel art for
1900-620: The planet ZDR. It retains the side-scrolling gameplay of previous Metroid games, alongside the free aim and melee attacks added in Samus Returns (2017). As the player explores, they discover new items and weapons, allowing them to access new areas. Dread features stealth mechanics, with Samus avoiding the EMMI robots in certain areas by hiding, reducing her noise, and using the Phantom Cloak, camouflage that makes her invisible but slows her movement. If an EMMI catches Samus,
1950-489: The player has enough ammunition and recovery items to " survive " the horror setting. This is a thematic genre with diverse gameplay, so not all survival horror games share all the features. The Resident Evil franchise popularized this subgenre. Action-adventure games are faster-paced than pure adventure games, and include physical as well as conceptual challenges where the story is enacted rather than narrated. While motion-based, often reflexive, actions are required,
2000-583: The player has two narrow windows in which to perform melee counters and escape. If they fail, Samus is killed. EMMIs can only be destroyed when Samus obtains the temporary "Omega Blaster" upgrade, which is lost upon using it to destroy one; destroying an EMMI however grants Samus a new permanent upgrade. Upgrades can also be found by finding Chozo statues or destroying a Core-X like in previous games. Players unlock images in an in-game gallery based on their completion time, difficulty level, and percentage of items collected. The Galactic Federation receives evidence that
2050-420: The returning mechanics and the newer additions, saying "it always feels as though you've got a ton of choice in how to explore and move around your richly detailed surroundings". Joe Findly of CGM wrote that " Metroid Dread is a wonderful, modern take on a classic game from childhood". IGN wrote that it "brings back the legendary exploration and progression and merges it with excellent modern combat and some of
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2100-469: The specific game itself". Zablotny later included it in a list of the "15 more Nintendo Games you never got to play" and called it one of the most infamous cancelled Nintendo games. Nick Chester from Destructoid criticized Nintendo for its focus on games such as the Brain Age series over Metroid . During Nintendo's E3 2021 Nintendo Direct presentation on June 15, Nintendo revealed Metroid Dread
2150-529: The stealth sequences in Fusion and combine them with traditional Metroid gameplay. Though he did not want Dread to be a horror game , he aimed to explore "fear-based gameplay". Sakamoto attempted to have Dread developed for the DS. A first attempt was made around 2005, and another around 2008. A playable prototype was shown to Nintendo Software Technology and Nintendo of America staff at E3 2009 . The project
2200-500: The surface and return to her ship. Samus is attacked by the EMMI, which have been reprogrammed. She escapes and absorbs a mysterious energy from one of the planet's central units. The energy temporarily enables the Omega Blaster, with which she destroys the EMMI and regains some of her abilities. In the process, she finds out that Kraid, one of her old foes, survived the destruction of Planet Zebes and kills him. In Ferenia, Samus
2250-430: The term "action-adventure" may be '"An action/adventure game is a game that has enough action in it not to be called an adventure game, but not enough action to be called an action game." In some cases an action game with puzzles will be classified as an action-adventure game, but if these puzzles are quite simple they might be classified as an action game. Others see action games as a pure genre, while an action-adventure
2300-469: Was a disappointment and it made him nostalgic for Dread . Thomas East included Dread and its apparent reference in Corruption in their list of "11 amazing Metroid facts and secrets". East added that he was hopeful for a possible 3DS release. Marc Zablotny, a writer for Official Nintendo Magazine , included Dread in his 2013 wishlist, saying he was more interested in what it stood for rather than
2350-541: Was being released on Nintendo Switch , with a release date of October 8, 2021. Dread was developed by the Spanish developer MercurySteam , the studio that developed Metroid: Samus Returns , and Nintendo EPD . Sakamoto said that Nintendo revived the project after seeing what MercurySteam could do with its technology on the Switch. Dread is the first original side-scrolling Metroid game since Fusion . Metroid Dread
2400-466: Was named one of the best games of 2021 by multiple outlets. At the Game Awards 2021 , it received three nominations, including Game of the Year , winning for Best Action/Adventure Game. It became the fastest-selling Metroid game in Japan, the UK and the US, and has sold more than three million copies, making it the best-selling Metroid game. Metroid Dread is an action-adventure game in which players control bounty hunter Samus Aran as she explores
2450-429: Was released for the Nintendo Switch on October 8, 2021. The special edition included a 190-page art book, holographic art cards featuring the covers of the five 2D Metroid games, and a steelbook case. Two Metroid Dread Amiibo figurines were released. On the review aggregator website Metacritic , Metroid Dread has a score of 88 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Samuel Claiborn of IGN praised
2500-452: Was reportedly not titled Metroid Dread at that point and had an art style similar to Metroid Fusion . The prototype did not meet Sakamoto's expectations, so development was halted. A major reason for this was that Sakamoto's desire for an intimidating, unsettling antagonist was difficult to achieve with the DS hardware. The title Metroid Dread first appeared on a 2005 internal Nintendo software list of "key DS games set to be announced in
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